Category: Hope

Lord of my death
Lord of my weeping
Lord of my loss
Lord of my wounds
Lord of my illness
Lord of my unbearable pain
Lord of my heavy, light suffering
Lord of my unending, momentary affliction
Lord of my weakness
Lord of my fear
Lord of my despair
Lord of my uncertainty
Lord of all
Scoop me up into arms that hold to the ages
Out of time and out of dying life
Take me into wonder that I have slightly tasted
Into Your death and unending Life
Spread out Your Lordship over all of my being
Precious Lord Jesus
Lord first and last
God’s final Word forever
Have the last say!

—

“He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me. Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong.”
–2 Corinthians 12:9,10

“Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory; while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
–2 Corinthians 4:16-18

There is this Man Who was a Man of sorrows
of His fame we have heard
For upon His broken heart He bore the sin of all the world
in Love, in redeeming us, that He might bring us to God
But He was brutally killed by powers of sin and rebellion and darkness
And they laid Him in a grave to bring the story to its everlasting end
However… from deep, deep, deep within the heart of the Rock of ages
came an anguish so great and so overpowering:
The beloved Son of God had been taken away!
And in a moment an everlasting resolve rose up
from untold depths in Almighty Power in Indestructible Life
declaring that this will not stand, this will not be the last word
For there is One Who will say the last thing in all of heaven and the world
And no power — in heaven or on earth or in the universe —
will be allowed to withdraw the good and perfect Gift of the Father of Lights
No power or thing will be permitted to separate
the Love of God from His Beloved
Not will be taken away The Son of God
Not will be shut up The Way of Life
Not will be put out The Light
Not will be withdrawn The Love of God
Not will be aborted The Adoption of sons and daughters
And came an unalterable unchangeable Speaking…
Indestructible Life reanimated, the Son of God stood and departed from His grave
death, that ancient foe, was overpowered and conquered
with his wretched companions suffering and sorrow
Father God — Who is greater than all —
gathered His Beloved Son into everlasting arms

into heavenly places

and drew Him into the safety of His bosom
never to see corruption
highly exalting Him with The Name above every name
Where, in His Presence, there will be pleasures forever more
The Firstborn among many brothers,
The Resurrection and the Life,
The First and Last
The Alpha and Omega
The Almighty
The Ark of Refuge for all who have taken His Life as their own
believing into Him and subsumed into His Indestructible Life
who have been changed into glorious new creatures,
who will never die but will be awakened from sleep
and lifted up from the dust of the earth
into unending joy unspeakable and full of glory,
the Life of God’s Anointed One now their anointed life
And so — in hallowed Nearness to God —
we will be with the Lord forever
Never doubt it
O my sorrowful and contemplative brother or sister
who find yourself and your loved ones,
and all you have known here on earth,
passing so quickly out of time and into eternity,
I exhort you to take up the eyes of eternity
and endure your sorrow now with the joy set before you
with the Hope of Glory, which is God’s Anointed One in you:
He Who was, He Who is, and He Who is to come, the Almighty!

Our Precious Lord Jesus,
Savior of the world,
Son of the True and Living God:
We call You to come!
Come quickly Lord Jesus!

Psalm 61:

Hear my cry, O God, and attend to my prayer.
From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart faints;
Oh lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.
For You have been my shelter, a strong tower before the enemy.
I will dwell in Your tabernacle forever;
I will trust in the shelter of Your wings. Selah.
For You, O God, have heard my vows;
You appointed the inheritance of those who fear Your Name.
You will add days to the days of the King;
His years will be as generations to generations.
He shall abide forever before God;
appoint mercy and truth to preserve Him.
So I will sing praise to Your Name forever,
so that I may pay my vows day by day.
(To the chief musician. On stringed instruments. Of David.)

Psalm 71.3:

“Be a Rock of strength for me, to which I may always go”

Psalm 73.23-26:

“Yet I was continually with You; You have taken hold of my right hand. You shall guide me by Your counsel; and afterward You will take me to glory. Whom have I in Heaven? And I have no desire on earth besides You. My flesh and my heart waste away; God is the Rock of my heart and my Portion forever.”

Revelation 21.1-7:

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and the sea no longer is. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, having been prepared as a bride, having been adorned for her Husband. And I heard a great voice out of Heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God with men! And He will tabernacle with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death shall be no longer, nor mourning, nor outcry, nor will there be pain any more; for the first things passed away. And the One sitting on the throne said, Behold! I make all things new. And He says to me, Write, because these Words are faithful and true. And He said to me, It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the Ending. To the one thirsting, I will freely give of the fountain of the Water of Life. The one overcoming will inherit all things, and I will be God to him, and he will be the son to Me.”

2 Corinthians 5.1-8:

“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle is taken down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in Heaven. For also in this we groan, greatly desiring to be clothed with our dwelling place out of Heaven, if indeed in being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For indeed, being in the tabernacle, we groan, having been weighted down, inasmuch as we do not wish to be unclothed, but to be clothed, so that the mortal may be swallowed up by the life. And the One having worked in us for this same thing is God, who also is giving us the earnest of the Spirit. Then always being fully assured, and knowing that being at home in the body we are away from home from The Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight), even we are fully assured, and think it good rather to go away from home out of the body, and to come home to the Lord.”

I. God’s promises of succour and comfort to those that consider the poor; and,

1. We may suppose that David makes mention of these with application either, (1.) To his friends, who were kind to him, and very considerate of his case, now that he was in affliction: Blessed is he that considers poor David. Here and there he met with one that sympathized with him, and was concerned for him, and kept up his good opinion of him and respect for him, notwithstanding his afflictions, while his enemies were so insolent and abusive to him; on these he pronounced this blessing, not doubting but that God would recompense to them all the kindness they had done him, particularly when they also came to be in affliction. The provocations which his enemies gave him did but endear his friends so much the more to him. Or, (2.) To himself. He had the testimony of his conscience for him that he had considered the poor, that when he was in honour and power at court he had taken cognizance of the wants and miseries of the poor and had provided for their relief, and therefore was sure God would, according to his promise, strengthen and comfort him in his sickness.

2. We must regard them more generally with application to ourselves. Here is a comment upon that promise, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Observe, (1.) What the mercy is which is required of us. It is to consider the poor or afflicted, whether in mind, body, or estate. These we are to consider with prudence and tenderness; we must take notice of their affliction and enquire into their state, must sympathize with them and judge charitably concerning them. We must wisely consider the poor; that is, we must ourselves be instructed by the poverty and affliction of others; it must be Maschil to us, that is the word here used. (2.) What the mercy is that is promised to us if we thus show mercy. He that considers the poor (if he cannot relieve them, yet he considers them, and has a compassionate concern for them, and in relieving them acts considerately and with discretion) shall be considered by his God: he shall not only be recompensed in the resurrection of the just, but he shall be blessed upon the earth This branch of godliness, as much as any, has the promise of the life that now is and is usually recompensed with temporal blessings. Liberality to the poor is the surest and safest way of thriving; such as practise it may be sure of seasonable and effectual relief from God, [1.] In all troubles: He will deliver them in the day of evil, so that when the times are at the worst it shall go well with them, and they shall not fall into the calamities in which others are involved; if any be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger, they shall. Those who thus distinguish themselves from those that have hard hearts God will distinguish from those that have hard usage. Are they in danger? he will preserve and keep them alive; and those who have a thousand times forfeited their lives, as the best have, must acknowledge it as a great favour if they have their lives given them for a prey. He does not say, “They shall be preferred,” but, “They shall be preserved and kept alive, when the arrows of death fly thickly round about them.” Do their enemies threaten them? God will not deliver them into the will of their enemies; and the most potent enemy we have can have no power against us but what is given him from above. The good-will of a God that loves us is sufficient to secure us from the ill-will of all that hate us, men and devils; and that good-will we may promise ourselves an interest in if we have considered the poor and helped to relieve and rescue them. [2.] Particularly in sickness (v. 3): The Lord will strengthen him, both in body and mind, upon the bed of languishing, on which he had long lain sick, and he will make all his bed, a very condescending expression, alluding to the care of those that nurse and tend sick people, especially of mothers for their children when they are sick, which is to make their beds easy for them; and that bed must needs be well made which God himself has the making of. He will make all his bed from head to foot, so that no part shall be uneasy; he will turn his bed (so the word is), to shake it up and make it very easy; or he will turn it into a bed of health. Note, God has promised his people that he will strengthen them, and make them easy, under their bodily pains and sicknesses. He has not promised that they shall never be sick, nor that they shall not lie long languishing, nor that their sickness shall not be unto death; but he has promised to enable them to bear their affliction with patience, and cheerfully to wait the issue. The soul shall by his grace be made to dwell at ease when the body lies in pain.

II. David’s prayer, directed and encouraged by these promises (v. 4): I said, Heal my soul. It is good for us to keep some account of our prayers, that we may not unsay, in our practices, any thing that we said in our prayers. Here is, 1. His humble petition: Lord be merciful to me. He appeals to mercy, as one that knew he could not stand the test of strict justice. The best saints, even those that have been merciful to the poor, have not made God their debtor, but must throw themselves on his mercy. When we are under the rod we must thus recommend ourselves to the tender mercy of our God: Lord, heal my soul. Sin is the sickness of the soul; pardoning mercy heals it; renewing grace heals it; and this spiritual healing we should be more earnest for than for bodily health. 2. His penitent confession: “I have sinned against thee, and therefore my soul needs healing. I am a sinner, a miserable sinner; therefore, God be merciful to me,” Lu. 18:13. It does not appear that this has reference to any particular gross act of sin, but, in general, to his many sins of infirmity, which his sickness set in order before him, and the dread of the consequences of which made him pray, Heal my soul.”